South Africa and Burundi on Thursday signed several cooperation deals including in defence, education and agriculture during President Jacob Zuma’s visit to the central African country.

Zuma arrived Wednesday for a three-day visit to Burundi, where he mediated peace deals in the early 2000s to end a long-running ethnic conflict that erupted in 1993.A Burundi opposition coalition called on Zuma to start talks between it and the government over recent spate of attacks that has stoked fears of a renewed all-out war.

Key Burundi opposition figures went undercover or fled the country after President Pierre Nkurunziza was re-elected last year in polls they said were rigged by the government.

Nkurunziza last month called on the exiled leaders to return home for dialogue, a move welcomed by the opposition, but no talks have started. Zuma however said his visit was aimed at strengthening bilateral ties. He also inked economic, sports and livestock deals with his host.

Source The Citizen

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